The final death of opposition

Micheal Mhlanga

There is an impending political catastrophe in the opposition.

Upon watching the sad news of the passing on of Morgan Tsvangirai last week, I could not help but imagine the threat to the longevity of the MDC considering the magnitude of the succession drama rocking that party.

My forecasting could be wrong, but certainly a collapse of the coalition-the Movement for Democratic Change. Factionalised by power race, deliberate misinterpretation of their own constitution, cronyism and lack of clarity on succession as prescribed by the late Tsvangirai, MDC is on a free fall soon to be “last seen”.

The electorate is forced to negotiate its allegiance from depending on a political idea to depending on individuals. Democracy in the opposition has been reduced to personality cults, disenfranchisement of invested time, a protracted contest of characters rather than bread and butter issues and negligence of a political mandate bestowed on an opposition.

The electorate is made a spectator in a captured institution, and again, it is the less informed innocent yet vulnerable Zimbabwean who will be made political currency.

It clearly has dawned that the interests of the masses are not the rudder of opposition politics, but it’s a stampede on who will “own” the party. MDC-T is plagued by three problems which we should all read from the lens of factionalism: Nelson Chamisa, Thokozani Khuphe and Elias Mudzuri command a substantial following within the regime change camp albeit at varying numerals.

Elections are nearer than past thought and an opposition’s defeat is certain. With or without this titanic problem, opposition was going to mislay because for the entirety of its existence it was bent on a temporary mantra which Zanu-PF effectively dealt with last November.

The “Mugabe must go!” chorus became tired over the years and banking on it ensured politiruptcy (scarcity of political ideological underpinning). As Robert Mugabe left office in 2017 and the world witnessed the fall of G40, opposition, particularly MDCs were left with nothing to clasp on to for elections.

Their catastrophic demise was aggravated by His Excellency ED Mnangagwa’s assurance of a free, fair and credible election and the unexpected global embrace of the incumbents.

The stealthy manoeuvrering of the establishment on policy, administration and best practice politics further haemorrhaged the limping opposition and pushed them to political abyssal. It cannot be queried that MDC-T in less than 100 days was left as a sheer political catalogue in a competitive space of power management.

Coupled with an unfortunate illness of one of their founding members, the party’s discord was as evident as ushered by constitutional inconsistencies.

The expulsion/exit of Tendai Biti and Elton Mangoma in 2014 was concealed by the appointment not election of Nelson Chamisa and Elias Mudzuri in July 2016 as vice presidents to join an elected Khupe.

What started as speculation that the late Tsvangirai was ceding power to Khuphe who will later on be subbed by Chamisa and Mudzuri has turned out to be a cinema of political drama.

Many would question the reason of having three deputies with the additions being appointed without consultations, and the available rationale then was that the late Tsvangirai was not in the best of health and a succession plan was paramount.

Perhaps MT was at crossroads on how to retain Chamisa and capture the young vote he allegedly commands. The appointment should not be viewed from precepts of grooming because if it were so, then he would have inducted the young man through best practices of democracy as they purported to be.

The masses in their party had spoken through their demotion of Chamisa, MT was supposed to respect that.

However, his decision created the muddle the party is in today-yet again, the masses were relegated to mere spectators in what they are told is a democratic institution.

His fear of a Chamisa threat (which is debatable) created a political monster, one feeding off his legacy and claims proximity as legitimacy of any of his clumsy actions.

Maybe we ought to look at the very first mistake amongst many that the MDC-T did then. Firstly, Chamisa had lost an election to Douglas Mwonzora in 2014.

The masses had demoted Chamisa to an ordinary card carrying member. However, the late MT was still hung up on young Chamisa’s 1999 charisma and not forgetting the students’ constituency he brought with him in the formation of MDC.

We can read it as either payback or a fear of how threatening the young politician would be had another carrot been dangled by other quarters wishing to court him.

Should one consider Chamisa as a groomed president based on his appointment after rejection in a lower post, or recognise his presence in the presidency of the opposition as payback and fright-the scourge that will harass opposition from now till their last breath?

Secondly, the appointment of Mudzuri with Chamisa was another mistake. In Mudzuri’s case, one would assume that he was going to be Chamisa’s ally, but history reminds us that the two are nemeses.

In the subsequent April 2011 Bulawayo conference Chamisa was elected the National Organising Secretary of the MDC-T, an office previously held by Mudzuri. Chamisa’s closeness to MT then augments suspicions that he influenced MT for a cabinet reshuffle that saw Mudzuri being dismissed in June 2010 and replaced by Elton Mangoma as Minister of Energy.

One facetious thing about his dismissal is the allegation that Mudzuri was fired because of a blackout during the 2010 Soccer World Cup match and that as the Minister responsible for power and had promised to keep the lights on, he embarrassed the nation.

The successive events do not spell out a good relationship between Chamisa and Mudzuri based on the epochs that saw one being very close to MT and allegedly being the playmaker and one being fired from office and his office being assumed by the same person who influenced the man who dictated his political fate.

Thirdly, too much power left idle by MT during his ailing days. It is not long ago when the political sequel unfolded with a legitimacy wrangle emerging with Mudzuri claiming to be the only legit voice to represent the views of the then not-so-well MT.

On the other hand, young Chamisa made damning remarks that he had been anointed by the then president of the party, MT, and that the USA had promised him 15 billion dollars.

All of which were reported to be lies. A response by the USA embassy should have been a flogging reminder to Chamisa of his place in politics and reprimand him of carelessness.

The clumsy politics evidenced between the two over the past two months are a showdown of how the Mashonaland MDC-T vote is split and will not stand the ravaging electoral train drawn by Zanu-PF.

The fourth quandary is Khupe and her absenteeism. Her game is definite and can be timed: from the day MT appointed two VPs inconsiderate of her opinion to how she was not considered on the 14th of February on the succession matrix. With the exception of her supporters arguing along tribal, sexism and constitutional lines, beyond that, she has assumed the strategy of boycotting meetings, a failed protest ploy.

Her absence from those meetings does nothing to stop decisions from being made (constitutionally or not) and that is how she has lost her plot.

Her bout remains on playing regional politics which will relegate her to mere regional and confused parties like Mthwakazi Republic Party with whom she will share the electoral spoils, however, small they are based on the registration statistics.

For her, that is probably the end of her MDC road. She is anti-alliance so it also means that Welshman Ncube and Biti are not in her corner, her interests lie with the political weak in the form of Lovemore Moyo and Abednico Bhebhe- these two possess no command base.

She made an alliance with a poor devil. Together, they shed a crocodile tear for MT, it was recently clear.

For all this while, people should watch the last kicks of a dying horse or maybe the dying kicks of the last horse. The epitaph shall soon read: HERE LIES THE OPPOSITION.

Rest In Peace Save.

Yikho Khona Lokhu!